The taxman doesn't let travelers escape tolls

Saturday

Dec 28, 2013 at 12:01 AMDec 29, 2013 at 10:12 AM

Frequent travelers won't be surprised by the news that the tax they pay on trips has been going up. For decades, many states and municipalities have viewed travelers as easy tax targets, said Joseph Bates, vice president for research for the Global Business Travel Association.

Frequent travelers won’t be surprised by the news that the tax they pay on trips has been going up.

For decades, many states and municipalities have viewed travelers as easy tax targets, said Joseph Bates, vice president for research for the Global Business Travel Association.

In 2013, travelers paid 58?percent more taxes on services than nontravelers, up 1 percent from 2012, Bates said.

The organization just released its annual list of most and least taxing U.S. travel destinations. The study examined the taxes added to same-priced restaurant meals, rental cars and hotel rooms in each locality.

The lowest-tax destinations are the southern Florida cities of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers and West Palm Beach — good news for many Orange Bowl travelers. Visitors to each of those cities can expect to pay about $22.61 in taxes each day.

The highest-tax destination is the same as last year: Chicago, where taxes add about $41 a day to a traveler’s bill.

“For a five-day stay, you’re up to $200” in Chicago taxes, Bates said.

“That’s not a small amount. Even the average leisure traveler will take note of that.”

And business travelers are even more cognizant of added taxes than most vacationers, Bates said.

“Meeting planners and corporate-travel mangers receive similar proposals from one location to another. When you compare (taxes) in Chicago and Fort Lauderdale, that’s a big difference,” he said.

“When you have a meeting of 100 or 1,000 people, that difference adds up quickly.”

New York has the second-highest tax bill in the nation. Taxes there add more than $38 a day to a traveler’s bill.

Jumping up the list from last year are Minneapolis, now ranked third most taxing because of a new 3 percent state rental-car tax; and Indianapolis, which added an additional 2 percent to rental-car taxes and is now ranked fifth.

The traveler’s tax burden in Cleveland moved up to sixth from seventh, due mostly to the 0.25 percent increase in Ohio’s sales tax rate this year, Bates said.